Determining the number of entries in a list parameter from a command

I was creating a command with what I am going to call a "list parameter", to allow the entry of up to ten libraries. While writing the Command Processing Program, CPP, I encountered something I could not find a good description of how to handle. Therefore, I am writing this post to give you a good example of how I did it.

I am not going to go into too much detail on how to create commands and their parameters as I covered many of the basics in two earlier posts: Creating your own commands, part 1 and Creating your own commands, part 2.

My example command, MYCMD, has just one parameter, which will be the list of up to ten libraries. The source for the command is as follows:

01 CMD PROMPT('List of libraries') 02 PARM KWD(LIBRARY) TYPE(*NAME) MIN(1) MAX(10) + 03 PROMPT('Libraries')

Line 2 and 3: The command parameter LIBRARY has a number of keywords:

• KWD:  The keyword name for the parameter
• TYPE:  It is a name type parameter, which means it is equivalent of ten long character
• MIN:  The minimum number of entries that must be given
• MAX:  The maximum number of allowed entries
• PROMPT:  The description that appears on the screen

May presentations

The 2026 System i Developer Lunch & Learn series is upon us, with nine online prestenations from Tuesday May 12 - Thursday May 28. I will be making two of them:

• Thursday May 21 at 1:00 PM ET:  Simon's top five SQL favorites
• Thursday May 28 at 1:00 PM ET:  A few of Simon's favorite RPG BiFs

The speakers are all IBM i experts and the presentations are free, click here to see what they are about.

I always register for all of them as I find I learn something new from them every one of them.

Checking if there are updates for your Group PTFs

One of the duties of a good System Administrator is to keep the group PTFs up to date on the IBM i partitions you are responsible for. To assist with this IBM has "Group PTF Currency". The first time I encountered this phrase I was confused as I could not equate how PTFs related to money. The confusion was cleared up when I found out the "currency" refers to how current your PTFs are.

In the past the System Administrator would have manually check IBM's Fix Central website and compare the version of the PTFs on their partitions to the ones shown.

To make life easier IBM created a SQL view, GROUP_PTF_CURRENCY, in IBM i 7.1 that would retrieve the latest information about the group PTFs from the IBM "Preventive Service Planning", PSP, website. This View shows the PTF group level installed and the latest group level available. By comparing the two the System Administrator can decide whether it is time to get and apply the latest PTF group.

We can see the data on the PSP website as is it an XML file and can be reached at:

Checking the Electronic Service Agent

The Electronic Service Agent, ESA, is part of the IBM i operating system. Its purpose is to monitor your system's health, detect potential hardware failures, and report issues directly to IBM Support. If it encounters problems it can "call home" to report the issue to IBM.

To be able to "call home" it must be able to connect to IBM. How can we test that it can?

We can either use:

• VFYSRVAGT the Verify Service Agent command
• ELECTRONIC_SERVICE_AGENT_INFO SQL View that shows the same information

I am going to explain both of these below.

ACS version 1.1.9.12 available

I have to thank the person who contacted me to tell me that a new release of ACS, 1.1.9.12, is now available for download today, Tuesday April 21.

Track Group PTFs with SQL

I have mentioned the SQL View GROUP_PTF_INFO a couple of times in passing in other posts on this website, I have not explained what this View gives us.

A PTF Group is a bundle of related PTFs which are designed and managed as a single group. This simplifies PTF updates as all the necessary individual PTFs for a specific group are applied together. Examples of PTF groups are:

• SF99760 for cumulative PTFs
• SF99960 for Db2 for i
• SF99962 for the IBM HTTP server

There are several ways I can check on the PTF Groups on my IBM i partition:

• DSPPTFGRP:  Display PTF Group command
• WRKPTFGRP:  Work with PTF Group command
• GROUP_PTF_INFO:  SQL View

In all of my examples I am going to use the PTF Group for Db2 for i, SF99960, on a partition that is running IBM i 7.6 .

When I use the commands DSPPTFGRP and WRKPTFGRP I am frustrated that I cannot get an output file of the information it retrieves. With WRKPTFGRP I can only display the results:

New Englanders flock to join the RPGPGM.COM-unity

I handed out more of the RPGPGM.COM-unity ribbons at the NEUGC 2026 conference. You can see those I gave them to here.

If you see me at an IBM i event feel free to introduce yourself to me. In all likelihood I will have a RPGPGM.COM-unity ribbon on me, and you can become a member. All I ask in return is a photograph of you with it.

If you would like to learn more about the RPGPGM.COM-unity click here.

Spring 2026 IBM i TRs coming later

On the usual schedule there is a Technology Refresh at about the time of the COMMON PowerUp conference. This year will be different.

I was told by an IBM insider, last week, that the release date of the TRs has been postponed until July of this year. They would not say why. I assumed that news of the delay was business proprietary information, and was not going to share it.

This morning I see a couple of other websites running the story that the TRs are being delayed until the time more of the new IBM Power11 servers are announced.

As others are reporting this news, I am publishing what I know.

New Job columns added to the Record Lock View

In my last post I explained how the parts of the IBM i job name had been added as separate columns to the OBJECT_LOCK_INFO SQL View. I am pleased to say that the same three columns have been added to the RECORD_LOCK_INFO View too:

1. JOB_USER:  User profile of the job
2. JOB_NAME_SHORT:  Name of the job
3. JOB_NUMBER:  Number of the job

Before these columns were added, if I wanted to list my jobs, with the user profile "SIMON", I would need to extract it from the full job name or use a wildcard in the Where clause. With the addition of these three columns, I will show much easier this becomes.

If I wanted to check for record locks, not using RECORD_LOCK_INFO, I would use the Display Record Locks command, DSPRCDLCK. For example, if I wanted to check for record locks on TESTFILE, in my library, I would use the following:

01 DSPRCDLCK FILE(TESTFILE)

Which will show me the following:

New columns added to the Object Lock View

While the addition of these three new columns to the OBJECT_LOCK_INFO SQL View may not appear to be significant, I know it will make it easier for me to process data for jobs.

The three new columns are all part of the long job name, and now have their own columns:

1. JOB_USER:  User profile of the job
2. JOB_NAME_SHORT:  Name of the job
3. JOB_NUMBER:  Number of the job

Prior to the addition of these columns if I wanted to list my jobs, with the user profile "SIMON", I would need to extract it from the full job name or use a wildcard in the Where clause.

Before I show any SQL statements I need to explain the scenario I created. I have two programs:

1. Program 1: This RPG program opens the file TESTFILE for update and then pauses for ten minutes
2. Program 2: The second program uses a display file, TESTDSPF, and uses the EXFMT operation code to show it on the screen

Viewing the job's overrides

I have been burned before by file overrides, which point input, output, update, etc. both to an expected file. Anything new that comes along to help me show overrides makes me happy. The Fall 2025 Technology Refreshes, IBM i 7.6 TR1 and 7.5 TR7, has done that with a new SQL View: OVERRIDE_INFO. This view will return information about the overrides for the current job only.

I can override all kinds of files:

• OVRDBF:  database files
• OVRDSPF:  display files
• OVRMSGF:  message files
• OVRPRTF:  printer files
• OVRSAVF:  save files
• OVRTAPF:  tape files

I readily admit I have not used all of these commands.

There are three different levels I can scope an override:

Update to the technical resources roadmap

Yesterday an updated version of the IBM i technical resource roadmap was published. This web page contains a list of useful links for all things IBM i, from both IBM and other sources too. You will even find a link to this website in the Blogs section.

You can visit the page using the link here.

I have also updated the link, number 6 in the "Links to useful sites", on the right.

I am sure you will find something of interest on that page.